Fool's Gold

The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All

By: Susan Crabtree, Jedd McFatter, Peter Schweizer

“Fool’s Gold exposes the dangerous progressive vision that has failed California and now threatens every American.” - #1 NY Times bestselling author Peter Schweizer

Violent crime is surging, illegal drug use is off the charts, there is a daily invasion occurring at the southern border, the economy is in the toilet, and China and other adversaries are exploiting American weaknesses to bring the U.S. to its knees.

How did this happen? And more importantly, why does it continue to get worse? Take a close look at today’s Democratic Party power brokers and you’ll quickly realize most of them share one thing in common: California.

Everyone knows that residents are fleeing the Golden State in droves, the state’s homelessness crisis is the worst in the country, drug-related deaths are skyrocketing, and violent crime and smash-and-grab retail theft in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles is now commonplace. For too many across the state, pursuing the Californian Dream is now a fool’s errand. But what people don't know is what's driving these failures and why California leaders have allowed them to spiral.

From the investigative research team behind Peter Schweizer’s runaway bestsellers comes Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con-Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All. One of Schweizer’s top investigators, Jedd McFatter, has teamed up with award-winning investigative journalist Susan Crabtree to expose the most powerful names in politics: Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, and Adam Schiff, among others.

Fool’s Gold peels back the layers and disentangles the incestuous web of West Coast connections that drive decision-making in Washington. This investigation exposes:

• The most powerful and ambitious politicians and family dynasties and their close ties to mob bosses and cult leaders.
• World-class con artists and their schemes to defraud, plunder, and literally poison the people and institutions of America—including the illegal alien drug dealers getting rich and avoiding prison and deportation while killing Americans with fentanyl and other illicit drugs.
• Myriad pay-to-play and bribery schemes in which officials line their own pockets and sell out to foreign interests, including the Chinese government and its nefarious transnational Triad organized crime syndicates.
• You’ll see how California elites retain political power at the national and international scale through secrecy and deception.

This explosive book warns that Gavin Newsom is actually right when he often declares, “as goes California, so goes the nation.” America’s future is inextricably tied to California because of its sheer size and the enormous influence of its political figures who remain dead set on controlling the White House for decades to come—and transforming America into California. Most importantly, the book reveals why the chaos in America continues to get worse and provides hopeful recommendations for how the U.S. can get back on track.

From award-winning journalist Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics and rising-star investigator Jedd McFatter of Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute, this hard-hitting work of investigative journalism tells the untold story of the dark side of the Democratic Party’s Californian elites and the toll they’ve taken on the entire country.

It’s a story the mainstream media would prefer to keep hidden.

©2025 Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter (P)2025 Center Street

Critic reviews

“Fool’s Gold exposes the dangerous progressive vision that has failed California and now threatens every American.”—PETER SCHWEIZER, author of #1 NY Times bestsellers Blood Money, Red-Handed, and Clinton Cash